CHEYENNE - The latest round of tests from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance program has found the disease in three new hunt areas. CWD is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk and moose. The National Park Service also recently found CWD at Devils Tower National Monument.

Staff at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s wildlife disease laboratory in Laramie confirmed the presence of CWD in a bull elk from elk hunt area 12 northeast of Saratoga, in a white-tailed buck from deer hunt area 112 southwest of Cody and a white-tailed doe in deer hunt area 171 north of Lander. Consistent with previous CWD findings for the season, these hunt areas are all near or overlap areas where CWD has been detected before. As is the case with Park Service’s finding, which corresponds with deer hunt area 1.

“We continue to work hard to monitor CWD, research its impacts and potential vaccines,” said Scott Edberg Deputy Chief of Game and Fish’s Wildlife Division. “By the end of the year, we will be releasing a draft updated CWD management plan for public review and comment. We look forward to hearing from the public about this proposed plan.”

After public review and input, the revised CWD plan will be brought to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission for approval sometime in early 2016.Personnel continue to collect samples of deer, elk and moose through hunter field checks and at CWD sampling stations. Game and Fish personnel collect and analyze more than 1,600 CWD samples annually throughout the state. Hunters who wish to have their deer, elk or moose tested for CWD outside of the department’s CWD surveillance program can to do so by contacting the Wyoming State Veterinary Lab at (307) 766-9925. Hunters should be aware that it may take a few weeks after their animal is sampled to get their test results.